Silent Understanding
by Fifth-Of-Fourth
Summary: Luffy in a skirt accompanied by Ace's brother complex. Just how serious could this situation get? Love had never quite worked out the way anyone would dream for it to be. But as long as they understood, any way is just as good as the best one. AU in a way that Whitebeard and Ace survived the Marineford Wars/ AceLu, YAOI


Wow, it had really been awhile since I had written a fiction. I really hoped that my writing hadn't deteriorated ever since. Here is an AceLu for everyone!

**I DO NOT OWN ONE PIECE**

* * *

Ace was lying in his own cozy bed on Whitebeard's ship after the events that had happened in Marineford. He had thought for sure that it would be the last, final place he would be viewing on the very top of the execution platform but the efforts drawn out by his family, friends and brother had changed that. As much as Ace was grateful for their efforts, they wouldn't be seeing a second round of emotional breakdown by the Fire Fist Ace.

But he still loves them anyway.

During the battle, Whitebeard and Ace had miraculously barely survived. They were immediately brought back to the ship after the war had been concluded with the help of Luffy's crew who had unexpectedly shown up to help by a twist of fate. Which kind of explained why Ace was still lying on his bed with many rolls of bandages wasted on his battered body. He was sure that Luffy was no different anyway.

When he came to, he was informed by Marco that Whitebeard had decided to travel their ship with Luffy's own because they were planning to head to the nearest village. However, Ace was still unable to see his little brother because he was on a few days ban in his own room.

What he had for company during the days was a picture of Luffy's wanted poster in a frame. Yes, Ace even hung it up on his wall.

His peaceful and extremely boring moment was interrupted when he heard screams and cries from his crew members. On instinct, Ace immediately shot up from his bed in worry. His crew members would never scream in this way no matter how tough an enemy ship were to attack them. Hell, he could even hear _Marco _screaming. He promptly ignored his ban and dashed towards the deck, readying himself for an attack.

Only to be greeted by a man-no, a skeleton!

"Yohohoho!"

"I-IT'S A GHOST!" Haruta shouted while pointing at the intruder of their ship. Was that a cross he was holding?

"Ghost?! Where?!"

The skeleton reacted immediately and was frantically looking around for said 'ghost', unaware that they were referring to him. The ruckus seemed to have lessened when they noticed a familiar hand landing itself onto the ledge of their boat, followed by a small whizz of wind and the next thing they knew, someone was flying towards their ship.

"ACEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Which was pretty much self explanatory.

"L-Luffy!" Ace managed out before he found himself in a new world of pain when Luffy had landed onto him in a not-so-gently way. But who could blame him? Ace hadn't fully recovered from the battle in Marineford. Luffy, on the other hand, looked a lot better than Ace. "What the hell are you thinking?!" Ace exclaimed angrily and proceeded to whack his little brother across the head when he finally got the chance to.

Luffy lifted his head up from his chest, regarding him with his trademark smile despite having a growing bump on his head.

What was weird was the stares the both of them had gotten from Ace's crew members. No, it wasn't the fact that Luffy had literally flew over to their ship and created a dent on the wooden floor by landing on Ace. It wasn't the show of affections between the two brother either since they already knew how Ace had a brother complex for Luffy. Their eyes were right on what Luffy was wearing for that matter.

Was that the uniform top for Marine?

With a navy blue plaited skirt to match.

"Oi, what's wrong?" Ace demanded when he noticed the looks.

"Take a good look at your brother, yoi," said Macro.

When he did, Ace immediately wished that he hadn't. It wasn't that what Luffy was wearing made him look bad or anything (How could Luffy ever look bad or ugly anyway?) but… Ace couldn't think up of any words to describe him. From the many strange stories he had told his crew regarding Luffy, which is technically all of them, this one takes the cake. Upon recovering from his shock, Ace shoved Luffy into a sitting position and grabbed both of his shoulders.

"Why are you wearing THAT?!"

"Oh, this?" responded Luffy as he looked down at himself. "It's cooling, isn't it?"

"That wasn't what I asked!"

When Luffy showed no signs in explaining properly, Brook decided to take upon himself to clear things up. "Luffy had thrown himself over into the seas while trying to catch a pigeon for our meal. And because Luffy didn't have any extra clothes when we met up, Nami made him wear this instead. Yohohoho!" Brook explained which caused everyone to finally notice him again. "By the way, may I see your panties, Luffy?"

A huge vein popped up on Ace's forehead and a leg soon came flying towards the skeleton before Luffy could respond. "No, you will ABSOLUTELY NOT! Who the heck are you supposed to be anyway?" Ace fumed. Normally, he'd be polite upon meeting strangers but Brook didn't seemed to give a very good impression for him to.

"His name his Brook and he is my _nakama_!" Luffy answered for him in a cheerful tone.

Is he serious?

Well… Luffy seemed weird enough to attract weirder friends.

"And Brook, what are you talking about? I am not wearing anything there," Luffy continued on.

"Yohohoho!"

Ace was stuck in between adding another bump onto Luffy's head and blushing madly at the moment. Luffy's obliviousness could sometimes seemed as a sign of stupidity or an adorable trait-but for Ace, he'd just take both of them in mind. Luffy had always been adorable even when they were young. He'd follow Ace to almost everywhere he went and would mimic his actions. It was difficult for someone like Ace not to develop a brother complex.

"Luffy-You-!" Ace spluttered, earning a look of confusion at Luffy. "You are coming with me!" With that, Ace grabbed Luffy by the back of his collar and dragged him back into the his room despite Luffy's objections.

Which left the others at the deck with weird looks on their faces. They knew that Ace wouldn't do what most people would think of but it was just difficult not to wonder about it. The Strawhat pirates were a bunch of _strange _people. That was when Brook had whipped out his violin out of nowhere.

"Shall I play a song? Yohohoho!"

* * *

"By the way, Ace. What is my wanted poster doing on your wall?"

When they had gotten into Ace's room, Luffy was told to sit still on the bed and not move an inch while Ace rummage through his clothes for something to give Luffy to wear. However, there was practically nothing of his which could fit Luffy's smaller and slimmer body. The fact that he was a rubberman didn't give him much of a muscular body no matter how strong Lufft himself was. Ace wouldn't be able to imagine his little brother being in that kind of body anyway.

When said little brother had asked that question, Ace spluttered for the second time of that day.

"You are my little brother after all," was the simple response Luffy had gotten.

He could never admit to Luffy that he had a brother complex over him. As obvious as it looked, Luffy could never look at it that way. In fact, does he even know what does 'brother complex' means? Yeah.

"I see! I should do the same thing for Ace too!"

Ace would definitely be overjoyed if he did but that, of course, would be kept a secret.

"You can do whatever you want," Ace said simply in an amused tone. "I give up. You are too scrawny to wear any of my clothes. Why didn't you borrow anything from your crew members anyway? The cook seemed to be as slim as you."

"Hey! I am strong too," Luffy objected before continuing on, "Nami gave me these clothes first so I never thought of asking."

Luffy should know by now that it wasn't normal for a man to wear women's clothing, Ace dreaded. But as long as Luffy didn't get assaulted the wrong way then it should be fine with Ace too. Who was he kidding? He was just asked by his own crew member if he could see his panties! Even though Luffy had boldly replied that he wasn't wearing any.

But damn, Ace had to admit that Luffy didn't look half bad in those clothes. It would definitely look weird if Sanji or Zoro were to wear them, especially the latter. Luffy just had this pure and innocent face along with his skinny arms and legs. It was then for the first time, Ace noticed that Luffy didn't have any strands of hair on his legs or arms-another benefit of being a rubberman, he presumed.

Before he knew it, he realized that he was checking his brother out!

"Ace?"

Ace immediately shook his head to get rid of the thoughts and gave his brother a weak, reassuring grin. What was he doing? "Just thinking, Lu." Ace moved to sit beside Luffy on the bed while trying to prevent his eyes from trailing over his brother's body like some old pervert. "The skirt doesn't look too bad on you." It was meant to be insulting to hide Ace's attention on him but Luffy wouldn't catch anything in the first place.

"Oh? I wonder if Gramps would like it," Luffy pondered aloud, much to Ace's disgust.

If Garp were to find out and his reactions were to go for the worse, meaning being his usual idiotic lovey dovey self, Ace would have a difficult time fending him off. It was bad enough when Ace had to deal with him to prevent him from smothering poor Luffy and himself with his fist of love. He didn't need an old geezer going crazy over his little brother who was wearing a skirt.

But during the events at Marineford, Ace found himself unable to think of Garp the same way again.

"I hope he would never see this," Ace grumbled. Heck, he wouldn't let Luffy out of his room until his crew members give him something decent to wear.

Luffy snickered and agreed with Ace. He had never liked Garp's way of showing his affections when they were kids either but nevertheless, he was still family. even though Luffy would always prefer Ace more than anyone else. Even when he was trying to gain Ace's approval of him when he was young, he was always following him whenever he went despite Ace's annoyance towards him. No one knew how Luffy had became so attached towards Ace when the latter seemed so distant.

The thoughts went back to Marineford when Luffy was desperately trying to save Ace from his fate.

It was clear that their bonds had went beyond simple brotherly love at that point of time. The looks they had exchanged with each other had explained it all; the desperation in Luffy's eyes and worry in Ace's own. Despite everything, Luffy's love for Ace had brought him to the point that he was willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of his older brother. It was the same whereby Ace had grown more determined to take Blackbeard down after the traitor had announced that he would kill Luffy.

He could never let anyone lay a finger on his brother.

"Hey Ace," Luffy called out in an uncharacteristic soft tone. "You weren't planning to die when you saved me from that attack, did you?"

"To be honest, I didn't expect myself to survive. But either way, I would've blocked that attack anyway," he replied thoughtfully. Come to think of it, Luffy did seem shattered when Ace gave him his 'final words'. He regretted giving his brother such pain in the first place yet he felt… loved. "Did it hurt?" he asked softly.

"Of course it did!" Luffy suddenly rose the volume in his tone, making Ace jump slightly in surprise. "Y-You promised that you wouldn't go anywhere. A-And you were about to leave me too," he cried.

Ace sighed and pulled Luffy close to him, just like how he would comfort him when they were young. Luffy never changed. He was still as much of a crybaby as before but he had no shame in hiding it. Luffy allowed the strong arms circling his body protectively, assured that Ace had kept his promise. But even so, the mere thought and that moment whereby he had experienced losing his brother couldn't allow anything to relief him of it other than Ace himself.

"There, there, crybaby. I didn't break my promise, did I?"

Ace lowered himself down onto the bed while pulling Luffy along on top of him.

"Just so you know, I didn't want to lose you as well. You were reckless too by coming all the way there to save me," Ace scolded but his tone was anything but harsh. "I don't want you to die for my sake either so understand how I feel, damn it. Lu… I can't lose you either."

"Ace…"

_Damn it, Lu. You should know how I feel towards you._

Ace moved Luffy towards him with his arms and planted kisses on his forehead before moving the lips onto his nose and finally, Luffy's own lips. The rubberman didn't seem surprise at the action at all as he allowed himself to sink into the kiss they were sharing. They understood that it wasn't normal for brothers to engage in such affections but their love for each other had already ran beyond the sake that they had sworn upon.

A hand moved up to the back of Luffy's head and pressed onto it in order to deepen their kiss. Each millisecond of the time together had increased their desire for each other, not their body but their hearts.

"I love you, Lu…" Ace whispered against the kiss, breaking free of any negative thoughts of harboring such emotion for him.

Luffy's response was nothing of rejection. He loved Ace too-he loved Ace the most. He couldn't imagine himself being in such position with anyone else other than his brother-his lover and his own life. From the beginning till now, it was Ace that had played a huge role in his journey. Losing Ace would be the same as losing his present self.

"I-I love you too, Ace," Luffy responded before lifting his head up from the other's lips. "You won't leave me?"

"I won't, I promise." Ace moved his hand down to Luffy's bum, feeling the soft fabric of the skirt underneath his fingertips. How much Luffy could turn him on… but Ace wouldn't do anything above kissing right now. "You're mine."

Luffy snickered with a soft blush on his face. "And you're mine too, Ace."


End file.
